


A Coincidence called Fate.

by captainstars



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1970s, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Developing Relationship, Elevator Meetings, Fluff, Howard Potts - Freeform, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Soft Boys, captain stevens, doctor potts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-18 15:16:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19337158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainstars/pseuds/captainstars
Summary: The first time Potts met Stevens, the man had come limping into the infirmary. His face was pale, but he held himself upright.





	A Coincidence called Fate.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kenshincha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenshincha/gifts).



> This is an Alternate Universe inspired by the 1970s sequence from endgame. 
> 
> Fills the prompt: Captain Stevens/Howard Potts.

The first time Potts met Stevens, the man had come limping into the infirmary. His face was pale, but he held himself upright. Potts wasn't supposed to be down at the infirmary himself, it wasn't really his job. But Berta was having twins, and Dr. Miller had shoved his coat towards Potts in the hallway with an, "I'll buy you dinner next time!" and rushed off to the hospital to be with his wife. Through his bewilderment, Potts allowed himself to feel amused by the irony of the situation.

So when Stevens came down to the infirmary, well, the nurses intercepted him first giving him a preliminary check up. Stevens ducked his head. "Good day, Ma'am," he greeted, "I think I might need some assistance." Polite, as Nurse Winona led him to one of the beds. His pallor was steadily worsening, and Potts hurried to his bedside.

The question on his mouth faltered as he caught sight of the red stain under the man's jacket. Snapping his mouth shut, he stepped towards the bed. The nurses were diligent and had everything Potts would require at hand as they relocated the man to the operating theatre. He got to work, cutting away the man's shirt to reveal the injury.

"You've had quite the day," Potts hummed as he worked.

Stevens laughed. "Just another Tuesday."

They didn't speak much after that, Potts working quietly.

\---

It was two weeks before Potts saw Stevens again. He was in the labs, arguing with Pym over the list of new equipment they needed to to hand over to Director Carter. The Director requested they work with a shared budget, which was blasphemy itself (sure the budget was more than generous for both their needs, but the idea of requiring to have this discussion with Pym each time he wanted to put in an equipment order made Potts want to scream.)

Stevens had knocked on the door first, bless the man and his archaic mannerisms. But Potts and Pym were deep in their discussion, and neither wanted to back down. It wasn't until Stevens cleared his throat that Potts, still impassioned by his point of debate, snapped his head towards the entrance.

Stevens was in standard military garb, and he clutched his cap in front of him like a shield. His eyes darted to Pym once, and then rooted firmly on Potts. He cleared his throat, the sound awkward and scratchy. "I knocked." He offered in explanation, and Potts and Pym both blinked at him in tandem.

Pym turned to him in question, and when he realised Potts was not going to be forthcoming, he asked, "What brings you down here, Mr...?"

"Stevens," the man introduced himself, "Captain Stevens. I was hoping I could get a word with Doctor Potts?" He asked, shuffling his feet while his back remained pin straight.

Pym looked relieved that the social call wasn't his to deal with. Neither of them were particularly fond of chitchatting with the military agents. He rolled his shoulders towards Potts in a 'have at it' gesture, and then rolled his chair back to his own station.

Potts waved a hand towards Stevens, who was still blocking the entry. "If you're waiting for an invitation, neither Pym nor I are that classy, so get in here and make sure to shut the door. We don't want our formidable Director to catch us dilly-dallying on SHIELD's payroll, now do we?"

Stevens' mouth twitched into a grin. "No, I'm sure she'd be able to find us plenty of work if she did."

Potts found himself smiling back. "So, what can I do for you, Captain?"

"I wanted to thank you for treating me." He informed, sweeping a hand through his hair. "I was told that the possibility of infection would have been greater had I waited longer."

Potts shied away from the Captain's discerning blue eyes. The man was exceedingly handsome. "It was nothing, I was just doing my job." He tried to deflect.

"That's not what I heard." Stevens refuted. "I heard that had things gone south, the consequences you would have had to face would have been quite steep."

"Did Dr. Millers tell you that?" Potts inquired, amused. "The man's always had a loose tongue and a soft heart. Did he also tell you that I don't have a license?"

"He did. But he explained that you have extensive field experience and have been trained." Stevens sounded curious, his head cocking to the side.

Potts laughed, "I do. I just decided that R&D was a better fit for me. My father was a doctor, and he much wanted me to be the same, and for a while, I was."

"What happened?" Stevens asked him, leaning forward in interest.

Potts shook his head, "It wasn't for me, I'm better fitted to knocking heads with Pym here in the lab." He rubbed his chest absentmindedly, hoping Stevens wouldn't read into it.

Stevens nodded, "Well I'm glad you were there to help me, Dr. Potts."

"No problem at all, Stevens." Potts replied. "Now if that's all, I really should get back to making sure Pym doesn't blow up the lab."

Stevens chuckled, blue eyes filled with mirth, "I don't know. You seem like a man who might need some supervision yourself, Doctor."

Potts froze, it was easy to read double meaning into a line like that. He shook his head, and brushed off the possibility. "You take care Stevens, try to come back in one piece, if you will."

"I'll do that, Doctor."

\----

The next time they met, was a coincidental encounter in one of the building's elevators.

Stevens had just returned from a month long mission. He leaned against a corner and shut his eyes, trying not to sigh out his weariness. He would have probably fallen asleep in that position, if not for the concerned, "Captain?"

When he opened his eyes Potts was hovering in front of him, his palms outstretched like he was reaching for Stevens. "Are you alright?" He asked, "you don't look too good."

Stevens huffed. "Thanks for that," he teased.

Potts didn't miss a beat, "You'll have to suffer the one day of the month when you don't look perfect, I suppose. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone else." He replied with a cheeky grin. The words were probably innocent, but they made Stevens' pulse flutter for a brief second.

"It's been a hard day." Stevens explained. "There was a...filing error. I was scheduled to return in September, but I got assigned two long term missions consecutively. I guess it's catching up to me."

Potts frowned, "Were you able to eat something today, at least?"

Stevens paused, and that was enough to spur Potts into action. "Come grab a sandwich with me. The cafeteria should be open."

Stevens considered the offer. He was usually good at taking care of himself, but the past month had borne down upon him. "Sure, I could eat." He replied, and the smile Potts gave him in response was almost blinding.

\---

They met a few more times after that, some coincidental and some less so. Stevens liked spending time with the doctor, the man had an incredible wit, and they enjoyed goading each other into a bet or a challenge.

He was often a sore loser, but Stevens didn't find himself minding it much, not when Potts snuck glances at him, looking mighty pleased with himself.

\---

When Captain Stevens first met Doctor Potts, he thought the man was interesting. It wasn't often someone helped another at the consequence of themselves. That was then, however. Now that he had gotten to know the doctor, Stevens found himself a little enamoured. It wasn't always the best idea to crush on a work colleague, but Stevens couldn't find it in himself to regret it.

He tried to time it such that he met Potts more often near the elevators, the man always looked delighted when it happened and his smile was disarming. So he tried to make it a common occurrence when he was in the building.

One such time Pym found him loitering in the corridor just outside the elevator. He gave Stevens an odd look before passing by him and stepping inside. "Will you be getting on, Captain?" He asked. Stevens flushed and then shook his head, "That's, that's quite alright, I just realised I have somewh-" he caught sight of Potts heading their way, "-fourth floor, please," he said, as he got on, avoiding eye contact with Pym.

Potts greeted them cheerfully, "Fourth floor for me as well, Hank."

Hank pushed the buttons, and Stevens heard him mumbling under his breath, "third time today," but he resolutely ignored the man and struck up a conversation with Potts.

\---

Stevens had been a sickly child. The doctors had told him he wouldn't live past twenty, and he lived his early life believing the same. This meant standing up for what he thought was right and more than one encounter with a flying fist.

He managed to fight through it however, and then signed up for one of SHIELD's gene mutation programs when he was twenty one. The results had been better than anyone could expect, on the outside Stevens looked like a whole new person. Peggy Carter offered him a position, and for the first time in his life Stevens found himself conflicted over what the right thing to do was.

He wasn't sure if deciding to join the military instead had been the right decision, but he went by his gut. Ten years later, and he ended up working for SHIELD anyway, but being able to serve his country helped him feel stabilised. It gave him a purpose he felt he could chase after for as long as he was in the field.

Stevens believed he was doing good, so he worked hard. His missions were often the kind no one else would take, the ones where the probability of death for another soldier or agent was set at a hundred percent. Nothing however, could have prepared him for the first time he had been assigned a mission with Dr. Potts. He didn't even know Potts went on missions, and that the occasion wasn't a rarity. He should have guessed as much, Potts had a brilliant mind, and it would have been wasteful not to use him to his full capacity.

But knowing was one thing, and witnessing Potts in action, was another. The man could fight, and he fought with a fluidity that made Stevens sometimes forget his objective, just to stop and watch him. He worked tech in inspiring ways and had a quick intuition when it came to improvisation. They moved in tandem, like a well-oiled machine, and it was the best partnership Stevens had ever performed in.

He was exhilarated, but also a little distracted and that was probably why the stray bullet managed to hit him.

"Let's not do this again."

Was the first thing Potts said to him when he woke up in a bed at one of SHIELD's medical facilities, hands on his hips and foot tapping impatiently on the floor. "Let's _never_ do that again."

Stevens didn't say anything, just reached out and grabbed one of Potts' hands. "You saved me again." He said.

Potts didn't reply immediately, and then he sighed, "Do you know how much that terrified me? To see you just drop to the ground like that?" He squeezed Stevens hand. "It was one of the worst moments of my life."

"I'm sorry." Stevens told him, wishing he could take the man into his arms.

Potts finally looked down at him, "Don't be sorry," he said. "Be safe."

\----

Potts was in danger. That was all Stevens could focus on as he reamed his way through the building. The man had been supervising the installation of a surveillance system at one of SHIELD's new facilities and the building had been attacked.

Stevens tried not to jump to conclusions as he stormed each floor, desperately searching for Potts. He finally found him under a desk, bleeding out. He attempted to ignore the amount of blood and Potts' pale face. He assessed the injury- it was a gun shot through the thigh- and then he used his shirt to compress the wound.

Potts didn't say anything, so Stevens checked to make sure he didn't sustain any other injuries. He gently ran his hands along Potts' sides and then his chest, the touch grounding. He paused when he felt something odd.

"It's just a pacemaker, keeps my heart ticking. Nothing to worry about." Potts told him, smiling weakly.

" _Potts_." Stevens gasped, and he felt like his own heart was going to crawl out of his chest and jump into Potts' hand as a display of how much he cared about this man.

And he did, as a friend, a confidant, a partner and maybe even something more.

Later, Potts woke up in a hospital bed and Stevens was reading to him from a chair by his bedside.

"Judy Blume." Potts murmured. "That's an interesting choice."

Stevens gave him a small smile, "I thought you might say so."

They were silent for a while. The medication was probably wearing off, Potts was bound to be in a certain amount of pain.

"Will you tell me about it someday?" Stevens asked.

"There's not much of a story." Potts answered.

"I'd like to know." Stevens said, and placed a hand on the bed by Potts' elbow. The tips of his fingers brushed across bared skin.

"Okay." Potts replied.

And he felt like it might be, so he leaned forward and pressed his lips against the warm skin he'd just touched.

\---

Extra:

It had been ten years since Potts quit being a surgeon. He had always been brilliant at most things he attempted, and med school while tough, hadn't been as harrowing a journey for him as it had been for some of his peers. It probably helped that his father was a renowned surgeon.

The idea to join the military had dawned on him as a last minute rebellion, but he didn't want to follow in his father's footsteps and at that point his courage only stretched so far. War was a funny thing however, and even when you thought it was over, it never really was. For every man he had saved there was a man whom he lost. And for every right decision made, there was a wrong one to accompany it.

Experience came at a price. And finally Potts himself had been caught in the blast radius of a bomb and had to have an electromagnet inserted into his chest. The scarring was grotesque and a reminder of how fragile his own life was. He set down the scalpel and decided to build things instead. It made him feel useful instead of guilty about the chip on his shoulder.

He hadn't meant for Captain Stevens to find out about the reactor. But one of SHIELD's facility's had been attacked, and Potts, who was there supervising the installation of the new surveillance system he had designed, ended up becoming collateral damage. Stevens was the one who found him under a desk, bleeding out. Potts had been shot in the thigh, and Stevens checked if it was a clean shot before compressing the wound.

Then, he moved to make sure that Potts hadn't sustained any other injuries, and his hands found the reactor. The Doctor saw him pause in his single-minded endeavour to make sure Potts was uninjured, and he rasped out, "It's just a pacemaker, keeps my heart ticking. Nothing to worry about."

" _Potts_." Stevens gasped. He sounded anguished, but Potts wasn't sure if that was because of the shot in his leg or his defective heart.

Later, Potts woke up in a hospital bed. Stevens was reading to him from a chair by his bedside.

"Judy Blume." Potts murmured. "That's an interesting choice."

Stevens gave him a small smile, "I thought you might say so."

They were silent for a while. The medication was wearing off and he could feel a throbbing pain in his thigh.

"Will you tell me about it someday?" Stevens asked.

"There's not much of a story." Potts told him. And really, there wasn't.

"I'd like to know." Stevens said, and placed a hand on the bed by Potts' elbow. The tips of his fingers brushed across Potts' bared skin.

"Okay." Potts replied. 

 He smiled when he felt lips on his skin. It would take time for him and the Captain to understand each other completely, if they ever managed it.

Stevens was unlike anyone Potts had ever met before, and he loved him all the more for it.  

**Author's Note:**

> Kenshincha, I hope you enjoyed! 
> 
> This was a fun prompt to explore and I enjoyed writing it very much.


End file.
